Sonya Gomez
)]] Sonya Gomez was a Human engineering officer in Starfleet during the late 24th century. Early life She is the youngest of two daughters of José Esteban and Guadalupe Gomez. Her sister, Belinda Gomez, has always had a more relaxed look on life - leading to their mother's frequent use of the phrase "Why can't you be more like Sonya?" When she was about 10, she said that she was going to help her mother build a sculpting studio in the attic of their Vieques, Puerto Rico home - and every day after school she would go straight to it. Her sister would later comment on her quick and capable decision-making abilities, and how she'd stick to what she decided on. Starfleet As an early teenager, she said "I'm going to join Starfleet!" and once she made up her mind she signed up and studied for every placement exam until she was in. In her third year, her 4th year friend Lian T'su was approved and sent to the [[USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D)|USS Enterprise-D]]. Sonya immediately announced to everyone that she would make the posting to the Enterprise! ( ) While at the Academy, one of her instructors was Xin Ra-Havreii. ( ) She graduated Starfleet Academy in 2365, and her first assignment was indeed aboard the Enterprise. She started out on the night shift, but quickly came to the attention of Chief Engineer Geordi La Forge and was promoted to alpha shift. ( ) Within her first couple of days on alpha, she made a horrifying first impression on her CO, when she spilled hot chocolate all over Captain Picard. ( ) thumb|Specialist Lieutenant Sonya Gomez in 2368.Gomez struck up friendships with several fellow officers, in particular Kieran Duffy and Wesley Crusher. After an attack on engineering by Roga Danar ( ), Gomez realized that she had strong feelings for Duffy, and invited him on a date to the arboretum. ( ) The two continued a romantic relationship for over a year. In 2368 after the events of ( ), Gomez was promoted to full lieutenant and assigned to the [[USS Oberth|USS Oberth]]. At that time, she broke off the relationship. ( ) By 2375, Lieutenant Commander Gomez was chief engineer of the [[USS Sentinel (Akira class)|USS Sentinel]]. Hers was the only ship to survive a mission to sabotage a Dominion outpost during the Dominion War, and she saved her crew by altering the warp fields to appear as a Cardassian freighter. ( ) USS da Vinci In 2376 (stardate 53122.9), Gomez, now a Commander, was assigned as first officer and to lead the Starfleet Corps of Engineers team aboard the , where she was reunited with Kieran Duffy. ( ) They renewed their romantic relationship, and Duffy shortly after proposed marriage. Gomez hesitated in giving her answer, and before she could, Duffy was killed while trying to rescue the ship from the atmosphere of a gas giant. ( ) Duffy's death was devastating for Gomez, and she suffered several months of emotional turmoil. In December of 2376, she apparently went insane and took over Rec Station Hildago. In reality, she was held captive there while a complex artificial intelligence program stole her identity. ( }}) She made several attempts to strike up romantic relationships with varying degrees of success, with freighter captain Wayne "Pappy" Omthon ( ), Tobias Shelt ( }}), technician Brilson Lodine ( ), and archeologist Paul Cunningham ( ). However, Gomez's work ethic was never in question. She has proven to be an excellent leader of the SCE team on the da Vinci, earning the trust of Captain David Gold, even with some rough patches relating to Duffy's death, for which Gomez initially blamed Gold ( ), and to an awkward command situation Gomez was forced into by Ambassador Gabriel Marshall at Rhaax ( ). She also has had some friction with Duffy's egotistical replacement Lt. Commander Mor glasch Tev, who mistook her indecision shortly after Duffy's death (and Tev's reporting for duty) as lack of command ability and a signal for him to take a more active role. His subsequent insubordinations led the usually easygoing Gomez to put a formal reprimand on his record, delaying his chances of being promoted to full commander any time soon. ( }}) But her ability to come up with creative solutions to the problems faced by the da Vinci remains strong, maintaining the SCE's reputation as miracle workers. By 2381, she commanded the during the Borg invasion. ( |Lost Souls}}) Connections * Was instrumental in saving the planet Troyius from attack during the Borg invasion by making the planet disappear from sensors. Gomez, Sonya Gomez, Sonya Gomez, Sonya Gomez, Sonya Gomez, Sonya Gomez, Sonya Gomez, Sonya Gomez, Sonya Gomez, Sonya